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Posted at November 17, 2015, by Raleigh Addington, Comments Off on Gabe Klein, an expert on urban design, publishes “Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun”

From his experience as a food-truck entrepreneur to a ZipCar executive and a city transportation commissioner, Gabe’s career has focused on bridging the public-private divide, finding and celebrating shared goals, and forging better cities with more nimble, consumer-oriented bureaucracies. He draws from these insights to deliver “Start-Up City”, where he shows “how to get sh*t done in cities – and quickly.”

Start-Up City is a must read for anyone interested in making positive change in our cities.”
— Ray LaHood, former United States Secretary of Transportation

This book is for anyone who wants to change the way we live in cities without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government. Watch the video above, where Gabe shares some thoughts on his new book, or click here for more information.

Posted at September 4, 2015, by Mackenzie Fant, Comments Off on Gabe Klein set to publish new book ‘Start-Up City’

Expert on urban design and transportation, Gabe Klein, is set to publish his new book “Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun” this October.

With David Vega-Barachowitz, Klein demonstrates how to effect big, directional change in cities, and describes “public entrepreneurship,” and his determination to inspire a start-up-pace energy within the public sector.

With the advent of self-driving vehicles and other technological shifts upon us, Gabe Klein asks how we can close the gap between the energised, aggressive world of start-ups and the complex bureaucracies struggling to change beyond a geologic time scale.

This book is for anyone who wants to change the way that we live in cities without waiting for the glacial pace of change in government.

Adrian Fenty – Former Mayor of Washington, D.C. – explains, “Gabe’s lessons in “Start-Up City” break down the barriers between the public and private sectors in pursuit of a greater city and citizenry. The elusive recipe for successfully innovating within the confines of government is in this book.”

Posted at March 25, 2015, by Raleigh Addington, Comments Off on Behind the scenes at SXSW with serial web entrepreneur Ben Parr and innovation strategist Xavier Hughes

Thousands descended on Austin, Texas to talk tech, play music and network at the annual South By Southwest Festival (SXSW) this year. Laurie Segall from CNN reports that SXSW is the place where start-ups and people in the creative world come to get noticed, and hopefully break out into the wider world.

Laurie met with Ben Parr, a serial web entrepreneur and former editor at Mashable, who discussed the secrets to start-up success. Drawing from his upcoming book, “Captivology: The Science of Capturing People’s Attention” (due April 2015), he believes that the number one factor is building great communities.

Also in the crowd was Xavier Hughes, a leading innovation strategist and big data expert, who talked about the innovation program he helped develop for the Obama administration. Speaking from his experience as the Chief Innovation Officer for the US Department of Labor from 2010-15, Xavier described how the government was making a huge effort to find the top talent from across the country and integrate them as part of the Innovation Fellows Programme.

Watch the video for more!

For more information on how to book these keynote speakers for your conference or event, please contact Leo von Bülow-Quirk at leo@chartwellspeakers.com or call 0044 (0) 20 7792 8000.

Vivek comments that the tech industry surely deserves the criticism it receives for thinking small and focusing on silly apps – just look at the industry’s heavy hitters and venture capitalists who provided $1.5 million to seed a useless app such as Yo. But there is hope, he says, with many entrepreneurs doing great things. Vivek believes that “the tide is turning and that in 2015 we will see more and more emphasis on technology that returns us to the moonshot roots of Silicon Valley.”

This is evidenced by Google Ventures, which is focusing more on health care and life-sciences companies, and Y Combinator, the most powerful start-up accelerator in the world, backing seven non-profits in its latest class. Here are seven companies that stand out:

Posted at April 15, 2014, by Raleigh Addington, Comments Off on Check out the who’s who of London’s tech start-up scene

London’s Evening Standard has put together a hotlist of top names who are at the helm of the capital’s fast-expanding SMEs.

The line-up included tech stars such as Michael Acton Smith, founder of Mind Candy, father of Moshi Monsters and probably the most well-known face of Tech City, who was awarded an OBE in the New Year honours; Kathryn Parsons, known for teaching the world code through her Decoded course, whose attendees include the heads of Google and Virgin; and Joanna Shields, a tech legend who went from being at the top of Bebo, Google and then Facebook to being CEO of Tech City — the Government’s link to London’s 1,400 tech companies.

Posted at February 26, 2014, by Raleigh Addington, Comments Off on Lessons from Chris Poole – “Today my start-up failed”

We offer our sincere commiserations to Chris Poole, better known as moot – a hugely influential web entrepreneur, who has recently announced the failure of his start-up venture Canvas, and it’s Drawquest feature.

In an incredibly expressive and inspiring blog post, Chris, although terribly saddened, used the opportunity as a experience to grow from, and expressed his gratitude to the people that helped build up this enterprise.

He writes, “[with] that said, life goes on, and the best path forward is not a wounded one, but a more learned and motivated one.” – a philosophy we can all learn from.